Drawing is the artist's most direct and spontaneous expression, a species of writing: it reveals, better than does painting, his true personality.
Edgar DegasRead
People call me the painter of dancing girls. It has never occurred to them that my chief interest in dancers lies in rendering movement and painting pretty clothes.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Degas emphasizes that his focus in art is on capturing movement and aesthetics rather than the subjects themselves.
In this quote, Edgar Degas reflects on the perception that he is solely a painter of dancers, revealing a deeper motivation behind his work. He highlights that his true interest lies not just in depicting the dancers themselves, but in the dynamic quality of movement and the beauty of their costumes, suggesting that art is a means to explore broader themes beyond superficial interpretations.
Themes
ArtMovementPaintingDancersAesthetics
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a discussion about the interpretations of artistic works in a gallery.
More from Edgar Degas
All quotes βNo art is less spontaneous than mine. What I do is the result of reflection and the study of the great masters.
Edgar DegasRead
Everyone has talent at twenty-five. The difficulty is to have it at fifty.
Edgar DegasRead
It is all very well to copy what one sees, but it is far better to draw what one now only sees in one's memory. That is a transformation in which imagination collaborates with memory.
Edgar DegasRead
The Dance instills in you something that sets you apart. Something heroic and remote.
Edgar DegasRead
You have to have a high conception, not of what you are doing, but of what you may do one day: without that, there's no point in working.
Edgar DegasRead
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